China's foreign minister has called for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestine to prevent a humanitarian disaster in a meeting with his Russian counterpart.
“China's foreign minister on Monday called for a ceasefire to halt the bloodshed in Israel, suggesting at a meeting with his Russian counterpart that major world powers should work to avoid a humanitarian disaster.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the conflict between Israel and Hamas with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing ahead of a visit by President Vladimir Putin to China.
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| Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shakes hands with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a meeting in Beijing, China |
‘The United Nations Security Council must take action, and the major powers should play an active role’, Wang told Lavrov, according to a Chinese transcript of the meeting.
‘It is imperative that a ceasefire be put in place, that the two sides be brought back to the negotiating table, and that an emergency humanitarian channel be established to prevent a further humanitarian disaster’.
Russia and China, both permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, have said that the fundamental issue at the heart of the conflict is the lack of justice for the Palestinians.
The Palestinians want a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital - all territory captured by Israel in the 1967 war.
Russia has condemned violence against both Jews and Palestinians, but Putin has repeatedly criticised the United States for what he said was its flawed approach which had ignored the need for an independent Palestinian state.
‘A thorough exchange of views took place on a wide range of international and regional issues, including the sharply aggravated situation in the Middle East’, Russia's foreign ministry said of the meeting with Wang.
During the bilateral talks, Lavrov and Wang Yi also discussed the military conflict in Ukraine and efforts to resolve it through ‘political and diplomatic methods’, the ministry said.
‘China appreciates President Putin's high regard for and support for the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, and welcomes the Russian side's continued active participation’, Wang said”. -Reuters
With the Sino-Russian alliance and its newly ascendant grouping of postcolonial developing countries standing in opposition to an Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip and the United States naval presence in the Mediterranean Sea to defend the Jewish State, the U.S. Navy runs the risk of abandoning the South Pacific and leaving China with a window of opportunity to lay claim to Taiwan with the South China Sea left unattended.